Whistleblowers have 'smoking gun' vs lawmakers: lawyer

by Ira Pedrasa, ABS-CBNnews.com

MANILA - The whistleblowers in the pork barrel corruption scandal have something more up their sleeves, with pieces of evidence allegedly directly pointing to lawmakers involved in the P10 billion scam.

Levito Baligod, the lawyer of whistleblower Benhur Luy, said what has been disclosed so far shows how the Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF) was siphoned to bogus non-government organizations.

He said the whistleblowers can complete the story left hanging by the Commission on Audit (COA) report on the PDAF anomalies.

So where did the public funds go after these were diverted to the coffers of NGOs?

Baligod said, “There are bank-to-bank transactions. Example: there are withdrawals from the banks of foundations and these were credited to the bank accounts of legislators.”

He refused to name them now, saying the evidence will have to be received first by the Department of Justice.

ABS-CBN News reporter Jay Ruiz said he saw signatures of 3 senators and 20 congressmen in the supposed transactions between Napoles and the legislators.

Some of the legislators or their chiefs of staff have claimed their signatures were forged.

“I can’t disclose now. There is a difference between the legislators who received the money themselves and also the conduits who received the money for the legislators,” Baligod said. “Expect more.”

In an undisclosed location, the whistleblowers are watching the “Million People March” unfolding before them.

An emotional Gertrudes Luy, the mother of Benhur, said: “We are thankful that everyone went out. We did not expect this kind of support.”

The other whistleblowers who were there were also in tears. “Our efforts will not be futile,” one whistleblower said.

They all expressed frustration for not being able to go to Luneta. Baligod earlier claimed there are hit men after their necks.

“We are very happy [with what’s happening in Luneta]. In these moments when we have to exact accountability from our elected leaders, our people are united in sentiment, thought and purpose,” Baligod said.

He said the mobilization of the people will further their fight to bring out the truth.

“We expect them to go back to their normal lives after the scam,” Baligod said.